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Are we going back to the future on streetcars?
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Streetcars have been getting a lot of attention in both Columbus and Cincinnati. Mayors of both cities have been pushing specific projects. They've generated support and skepticism.
Streetcars are train-like, mass-transit vehicles that ride on street-level rails; the power comes from overhead electrical lines.
Surprisingly enough, $4 gas is not the force behind the two proposals. Both mayors, to their credit, were at work long before that threshold was crossed. Clearly, though, high gas prices generally are at the heart of this matter and are responsible for much of the support the proposals get.
There happen to be other cases for streetcars. In Columbus, the plan is for rides up High Street from downtown, through the Near North entertainment district to Ohio State University. Some people think that a lot of people — including tourists — would take that ride, even if they'd never think about getting on a bus.
(Critics of the plan point out, after all, that a lot of bus seats go begging.)
In Cincinnati, the plan is for a ride from downtown up through Over-the-Rhine and farther.
Plans in both cities are modest, certainly compared with some streetcar systems that prevailed in the days of old, before everybody got car crazy and great resources were abandoned. But they are a start.
Money is a big problem, of course. In both cities, the number $100 million is heard a lot.
In Columbus, the mayor's office is "retooling" its proposal in the face of city council skepticism about money.
The original plan entailed getting money out of businesses that are near enough to the tracks to benefit. Other funding would probably be necessary. But predictions as to how much are squishy.
Pre-existing opposition exists. An opponent of streetcars at the libertarian Cato Institute think tank in Washington calls them "a really expensive Disney ride" subsidized by taxpayers.
And yet driving is also subsidized by taxpayers; somebody has to pay for the roads, the upkeep of which is a never-ending expense.
Whether all the money for new streetcars would have to come from government is unclear. Cincinnati, for example, is also seeking $30 million in private contributions.
What's clear is that people are looking for alternatives to driving. They're driving less by billions of miles. Nationally, June mileage was down almost 5 percent from the same month last year. The drop would be greater if travelers had more alternatives.
In judging whether a particular streetcar proposal is a good idea, guesses must be made about how much a line would be used. Those guesses have to depend upon population. So advocates of a streetcar line in a place like Dayton would face issues different from those in Cincinnati or Columbus.
But now is the time for people to come forth who have long mourned the disappearance of old streetcar lines — and who want to see more use of public transportation to ease the nation's dependence on oil. The iron is hotter than ever.
It might get hotter still, even if oil prices don't keep rising. The nation is turning some sort of corner. The combination of high gas prices and concerns about global warming is creating a generation of young adults with a different outlook on transportation than their parents had. The old assumptions about the American lifestyle are not in play.
It's a time for, at least, the floating of new ideas, ideas that could become increasingly attractive.
